Two important studies on recent events

Here are the most recent analysis on Cuba by Washington Office on Latin America’s Geoff Thale and Clay Boggs.

Rep. Paul Ryan's Surprising Voting Record on Cuba

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI pictured), Mitt Romney’s choice as running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, once favoured lifting the embargo against Cuba. But recently he changed his position. Just how strong an opponent of the embargo was Ryan? WOLA's Geoff Thale went back and counted the votes. He found that Ryan voted against the embargo in 20 out of 24 Cuba votes between 2000 and 2007. In fact, Ryan voted for easing or ending the embargo on every single vote from 2000 to 2005. Thale points to polling data to show that, contrary to conventional wisdom, many Cuban Americans actually agree with Ryan's longtime opposition to the embargo.

Economic Reforms and Labour Protections in Cuba In the past two years, Cuba has taken important steps to open up its economy. WOLA's Clay Boggs and Geoff Thale argue that the reform process has generated a mixture of support and resistance as it impacts not only government bureaucrats but also ordinary Cubans, who may experience both gains and losses in the process. In particular, Boggs and Thale argue that the expanding private sector will inevitably pose challenges for Cuba's limited but meaningful set of labor protections. They note that two upcoming laws may help answer some of the questions about labour in Cuba. One law is a framework for cooperatives in Cuba; the other is a revised labour code.

For more information, please contact Clay Boggs at cboggs@wola.org or (202) 797-2171.

Visions of socialism

I have just finished reading an article that appears HERE in the current edition of Temas magazine from Havana written by Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, of the Centro de Estudios de la Economía Cubana (pictured). For those who can read Spanish it is well worth a look.

She identifies three tendencies of thought in Cuba today about the way forward for socialism in the country. These she labels as the 'statist', 'economistic' and what she calls the 'autogestionaria' which I translate as the 'collective self-manager'.

The statists are those who still cling to a strong, centralised and authoritarian state as the best means of defending the socialist system. They do see the need for some economic reform but wish to go only so far as to alleviate the immediate economic problems. They oppose the idea of a broad opening to the market and political as well as economic liberalisation or democratisation.
The economists, she describes as being in their purest form actually very frighteningly close to being neoliberals (though not admitting it in so many words), advocating root and branch adoption of market mechanisms and privatization of enterprises as the best means of delivering growth and improvements in living standards.
The third and final group (to which I suspect Camila belongs) are those who wish to see a decentralisation and democratisation of the social economy, greater workers' control, more accountability and more cooperatives. This she says is criticised as utopian and is a view confined mainly to intellectuals who are wary of the pitfalls for the other two tendencies, which, she says, predominate in the public discourse. However, she points out that the 'statist' view is not shared by all those within the state, nor is the 'economistic' vision confined or monopolised by those who might be defined as economists.
If what Camila is describing does accord with the current reality, I draw three conclusions. Firstly, Cuba is going through a true period of societal change that involves a broad ranging discussion of the future and the options available to it. Secondly, there is a very real division of opinion within society as to what is the best direction forward. However, thirdly, despite these very divergent visions, the society is not visibly separating out into camps that define themselves along these ideological lines.  There is evidently something overlaying that binds the society together. My reading inclines me to believe that there is a consensus that whatever route they take, the accepted need is to find a path to preserve what they have and that implies keeping the United States out.
The United States should take on board the writing such as this that is coming out of Cuba and understand that this is not a society that is cowed by 'totalitarianism' nor is it a society that will be subverted from outside. If Camila is correct, it is a society that is genuinely trying to find its own path to socialism and sustainability in the 21st Century.
My point in saying this is to suggest that while this may be reason enough for the US to oppose it, I think it would be fairer for all concerned if the political class in the US would just say so, rather than to pretend that Cuba is 'totalitarian' (see: 'The weird world of Mit' - below) or does 'not respect human rights' or is a 'sponsor of state terrorism' - all of which, as Camila's erudition and apparent freedom to write shows, are palpably false and utterly insulting to anyone with half a brain who lives in the United States or elsewhere in the so-called liberal democracies.  

Open letter to the Republican and Democratic National Committees

Following the frankly ridiculous statement on Cuba policy from the Republicans (see post below) this letter was circulated yesterday by some Cuban-Americans who have a firmer grasp on reality.

To the Republican and Democratic National Committees:

 

            In light of both the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions we, as Cuban Americans and American citizens, urge both parties to not fall into the trap of viewing our community as a monolithic voting bloc that is  in favor of the United States' embargo on Cuba.  During these conventions the platforms for each party will be decided upon and put into action. For the past fifty years, a strategy of blind support for the embargo has become the norm for political candidates from both parties in order to garner the support of Cuban Americans. We would implore all candidates to not look upon our demographics as one that unanimously supports this failed policy of hostility. Rather, we are a diverse body of voices with a majority that favors a policy of engagement, and ultimately, normalization of relations between the two nations.

            Numerous polls of the Cuban American community in southern Florida and throughout the nation demonstrate that a majority of these citizens favor the policies that the Obama administration put in place in 2009 and then expanded in 2011.  These moves have eased the process of reunification of Cuban families by allowing Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba more frequently and send more remittances to loved ones on the island. Overwhelmingly, Cuban Americans have voted with their feet and pocketbooks by traveling to Cuba, sending money, and acting as ambassadors for our great nation.  As Cuban Americans we feel that we are not any better than any other American citizen and would hope that the U.S. government takes steps to eliminate the travel ban placed on all American citizens.

            We ask Mitt Romney, the presumptive candidate, and the Republican Party to abandon the cold war rhetoric. Easing the embargo is not an act of "appeasement".  It is our hope that Paul Ryan will remain consistent to his well-documented stance against the embargo. We urge all candidates to consider the vast support among congressional Republicans who represent the Midwest and many other districts across the country to end the embargo in order to open up a potentially dynamic market for agricultural and other manufactured goods made in the USA.

            True conservatives cannot defend our policy towards Cuba. The travel restrictions violate American citizens' individual right to travel. Also, our government's stance towards Cuba is an absolute contradiction to free market capitalism. Furthermore, it is our hope that the GOP will understand the historic ties that Tampa, the host city of their national convention, has with Cuba. The majority of the Cuban American community there favors normalization of relations with Cuba. We reject any attribution of Cuban American congressional members of the Republican Party from southern Florida such as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Marco Rubio, David Rivera, and Mario Diaz-Balart to speak on behalf of Cuban Americans as a whole within the state, let alone throughout the nation.

            The inclusion of Cuba on the list of State sponsors of Terror is counterproductive. This designation undermines American national security because it eliminates the possibility of working in concert with Cuban leaders on important matters of regional security.  Our policy towards Cuba is also looked upon with derision by most of our allies in Latin America and this also compromises our position of influence in the hemisphere. Finally, the embargo effectively denies the very real potential of sustained gains in various sectors of the economy that would result from the opening of a very close market that yearns for American goods and services.

            President Obama and his administration are well aware of these circumstances and have encountered opposition from our partners in the western hemisphere regarding such policies. We welcome a proactive response to deal with these challenges.  Regardless of the outcome of the elections in November we would hope that liberals and progressives within the Democratic Party continue to work to bring about a relationship that is more beneficial for both the Cuban people and the American populace.

 

            In closing, we reiterate to all political candidates of both Republican and Democratic parties that Cuban Americans represent a plurality of views pertaining to U.S.-Cuba relations. Any posture by any politician that insinuates that we are all in favor of the embargo is misleading.  It is our desire that the members of the American political class resist the urge to repeat the same tired lines about Cuba and the embargo from past campaigns.  Such an attempt to pander to a community whose grasp of the issue of U.S.-Cuba relations is quite sophisticated and nuanced could cause negative results at the ballot box.

 

Respectfully,

 

Members of the Board of Directors of CAFE (Cuban Americans for Engagement) and from the Executive Committee of FORNORM

 

Dr. Maria Isabel Alfonso, New York, NY. CAFE

Dr. Romy Aranguiz, Worcester, MA. CAFE

Dr. Eduardo Araujo, Boulder, CO. CAFE

Alejandro Barreras, Miami, FLA. CAFE

Isidro Borja, Miami, FLA. former President of FORNORM

Ernesto Cabo, Alexandria, VA. CAFE

Amaury Cruz, Miami, FLA. Vice President of FORNORM

Elena Freyre,  Miami, FLA. President of FORNORM

Arturo Lopez-Levy, Denver, CO. CAFE

Andres Ruiz, Worcester, MA. CAFE

Dr. Julio Ruiz, Miami, FLA. Secretary of FORNORM

Benjamin Willis, New York, NY. CAFE

Antonio Zamora, Miami, FLA. former President of FORNORM

The weird world of Mit

 

I have just read the US Republican Party's platform programme for Cuba ahead of the Republican National Convention and I have to say it is weird.
The statement, released on 20 August, describes the "regime" in Cuba as “anachronistic” and “a mummified relic of the age of totalitarianism, a state-sponsor of terrorism”. It rejects “any dynastic succession of power within the Castro family” and conditions the lifting of trade, travel, and financial sanctions on “the legalization of political parties, an independent media, and free and fair internationally-supervised elections”. 
At the same time, the Republicans pledge support to what they call Cuba’s “courageous pro-democracy movement as the protagonists of Cuba’s inevitable liberation and democratic future” and calls for “a dedicated platform for the transmission of the illegal propaganda platforms Radio and TV Marti and for the promotion of Internet access and circumvention technology as tools to strengthen what they think is a "pro-democracy movement" on the island. 
The Republicans furthermore endorse the truly anachronistic and idiotic Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, saying that they "recognize the rights of Cubans fleeing Communism”.
All that rhetoric over they then make no mention whatsoever of rolling back President Obama’s easing of restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances.
It is clearly going to be an oxymoronic presidential race in Florida - or might that just be plain moronic?

Assange and the Cuba connection

Now I am not one to believe in conspiracies except in cases where a conspiracy is reasonably the only explanation for something extraordinary. So I am not going to dwell on the facts of the Julian Assange case. However, I think there are very many in the UK who should watch this documentary made by Australian television that convinces me that he has good reason to believe that he is the victim of a set up:

The documentary raises credible and serious reasons to doubt the Swedish justice system and his female accusers but does not go into their backgrounds. What is very interesting about the chief accuser, Ana Ardin, is that she does not appear to have been the sort of person who in the past would have had anything to do with an organisation like Wikileaks. In fact, she has a record of anti-Cuban agitation. Here for example is what she had to say about Cuba in an article posted on this Swedish website:

"Unemployment is very much higher than the official figures say (20-25 percent rather than two per cent) since the employment is not counted in the statistics. Streets, squares and parks are filled with people who do not work. Cuba must import most goods and they do not even cover their own food needs...the U.S. imposed trade embargo against Cuba and Cuban goods in 1962 will not destroy the Castro regime - on the contrary! Partly becasue Cuba does not have anything to sell, and partly because this is one of Castro's main defenses against criticism that Communism did not make Cuba a paradise."

This is clearly not the work of a sympathiser with the Cuban government. According to the US website Counterpunch Ardin  has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. The website in which she published her Cuba articles is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. This group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties are exposed here. Ardin was apparently deported from Cuba for subversive activities. In Cuba she interacted with the womens' anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. 

The Missile Crisis 50 years on: Lessons of threatened mass destruction

 Event just confirmed

 

Public lecture 16th October, 2012

The Missile Crisis 50 years on: Lessons of threatened mass destruction

On the 50th anniversary of the October missile crisis in which the the United States and the USSR brought the world to the brink of mass destruction, the IISC and the Institute for the Studies of the Americas presents a public lecture by the esteemed Cuban expert in international affairs, Professor Carlos Alzugaray Treto.

“The Origins of the Missile Crisis: An asymmetric confrontation in a Cold War context”.

In this presentation Profesor Alzugaray will analyse the antecedents of the Crisis and answer the question: Was it simply another Cold War crisis or the result of an asymmetric confrontation between a big power and a small nation?

Tuesday 16th October, 2012
6.00pm
Room 349,
Senate House, Malet St,
London

Admission Free

Registration:  Please contact Olga Jiménez at ISA:  Olga.Jimenez@sas.ac.uk

Romney 'clueless' in Cuban Miami

It is not going well for Republican presidential hopeful Mit Romney in Florida. It appears that he keeps very bad company. In this opinion piece Angel Castillo, Jr., a former reporter and editor for the New York Times and The Miami Herald, reports that his campaign team chose to hold his press conference at a restaurant and fruit market called "El Palacio de los Jugos," or "the Juice Palace."
It turned out, however, as disclosed by reporter Francisco Alvarado in the Miami New Times, that the owner of the Juice Palace, Reinaldo "Rey" Bermudez, 51, is a convicted criminal, a cocaine smuggler who served three years in prison. Bermudez was born in Cuba and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
As a result, almost all the news coverage focused on the "controversy" over the felon small businessman. A typical headline, in Toronto's Globe and Mail, said: "Romney's host at Miami campaign event turns out to be convicted cocaine trafficker." No one from the Romney Campaign could be found to comment on whether they knew in advance about Bermudez's criminal record.
Castillo writes: "If Romney and his staff wanted to make clear that they take the Cuban-American vote for granted, and that this visit was of no consequence to them, they scored an overwhelming success."
In another apparently innocent interlude, as reported here in the Huffington Post Romney inadvertantly used the word 'Papaya' (Cuban slang for vagina) when talking about the tropical fruits that he likes. Watch this report on his 'papaya monologue'.

From Miami something positive this way comes...

 

Starting this this weekend, the University of Miami Jerry Herman Ring Theatre is presenting five plays written by the controversial Cuban playwright Virgilio Piñera, in a grand production entitled "Absurd Celebration: The First International Festival of Virgilio Piñera's Theatre." The first play, Aire Frio (Cold Air), opens on Friday, with the four subsequent plays to follow each weekend for the next month.

According to this report, from the Miami New Times, the production involves two theatre groups from Cuba, a very welcome collaboration indeed.

The schedule for the five plays, and their associated production companies, are as follows:

• Aire Frío (Cold Air) by Argos Teatro, Cuba. Aug. 17-19
• El juego de Electra (Electra's Play ) by Artes y Producciones Artísticas, Spain. Aug. 24-26
• Los siervos (The Serfs) by Teatro de la Luna, Cuba. Aug. 31-Sept. 2
• Una caja de zapatos vacía (An Empty Shoebox) by E. G. Production, USA. Sept. 7 - 9
• Carrying Water in a Sieve, an evening of two one-act plays, You Always Forget Something and False Alarm, by UM Department of Theatre Arts, USA. Sept. 14 - 22, 2012.

Flip-flop or flim-flam? Romney's running mate presents problems in Florida

As the US presidential election gets into full swing, there are looming problems in Florida for Republican candidate Mit Romney. His running mate, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan (pictured),  has voted against the US embargo on Cuba at least three times, a record that makes him anathema to the right-wing Cuban emigres who essentially run the politics of Miami. In 2009 Ryan said: "If we can trade with China why not Cuba?" - a fair point you might say, but not one that sits easily with the Cuban emigres. The upshot has been some arm-twisting from the Cuban hardlners and an apparent flip-flop in Ryan's position.  However, Romney still feels the need to repeat the hardline on Cuba and to stretch credulity when talking about his VP candidate partner. The Republican hopeful had this to say yesterday in an interview to Miami's Radio Mambi:

"I am in favor of maintaining the embargo relative to Cuba and I support the Helms-Burton Act. Congressman Ryan has allied himself with Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Representative Diaz-Balart. They convinced him that the embargo is an important effort in order to put pressure on the Cuban government. So it's an important factor in legislation. Congressman Ryan voted "No" [on lifting sanctions] and his position is the same as mine – he wants to strengthen our policy towards the regime of Cuba."

The voters of Miami-Dade may need some convincing on that one, Mit. As for Obama, the way is clear for him to appeal to the more moderate Cubans in Florida who wish for engagement with the island and to use the Damascan conversion of Ryan to great campaigning effect. As ever Florida is going to provide some entertainment this election year.  

Birthday greetings

Today is Fidel Castro's 86th birthday. Here's a poem in his honour by the Argentine poet Juan Gelman and a painting of Fidel by the Ecuadorean artist Oswaldo Guayasamín.

dirán exactamente de fidel
gran conductor el que incendió la historia etcétera
pero el pueblo lo llama el caballo y es cierto
fidel montó sobre fidel un día
se lanzó de cabeza contra el dolor contra la muerte
pero más todavía contra el polvo del alma
la Historia parlará de sus hechos gloriosos
prefiero recordarlo en el rincón del día
en que miró su tierra y dijo soy la tierra
en que miró su pueblo y dijo soy el pueblo
y abolió sus dolores sus sombras sus olvidos
y solo contra el mundo levantó en una estaca
su propio corazón el único que tuvo
lo desplegó en el aire como una gran bandera
como un fuego encendido contra la noche oscura
como un golpe de amor en la cara del miedo
como un hombre que entra temblando en el amor
alzó su corazón lo agitaba en el aire
lo daba de comer de beber de encender
fidel es un país
yo lo vi con oleajes de rostros en su rostro
la Historia arreglará sus cuentas allá ella
pero lo vi cuando subía gente por sus hubiéramos
buenas noches Historia agranda tus portones
entramos con fidel con el caballo

From Gotán, Ediciones La rosa blindada,  Buenos Aires, 1962.

Now read this...

If this report is to be believed, Cuba's literacy programme 'Yes I can' has now been applied in 28 countries and has taught 6.5 million people how to read and write - more than any other literacy programme by any organisation anywhere in history. The programme has even been used in developed countries such as Australia, (see this article here) to help indegenous people.
Two questions spring to mind: Is knowing how to read and write a human right? And: Why is a country that does such a thing for the world's deprived branded a terrorist state by the United States?

 Remembering Virgilio

 

London-based Cuban writer Mario López-Goicoechea writes:  

 

One hundred years ago last Saturday, on 4th August, 1912, the Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera (pictured) was born. To celebrate his centenary I have written three distinctive and exclusive essays for three UK publications: The Prisma, Prospect and The Guardian. You can read each article by clicking on the links below:

 

http://www.theprisma.co.uk/es/2012/07/30/virgilio-pinera-a-cien-anos-de-su-natalicio/ (the original in Spanish)

http://www.theprisma.co.uk/2012/07/30/virgilio-pinera-a-hundred-years-on-from-his-birth/ (the English translation)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/03/pinera-cuba-modernism-writer    

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/blog/virgilio-pinera-forgotten-master-of-cuban-literature/

 

www.cubaninlondon.blogspot.com

The facts will out...

More information is emerging about the company that Oswaldo Paya kept in the hours before he died. According to the French investigative journalist Jean Guy-Allard, Angel Carromero, the Spaniard who has admitted to have driven the car so fast and to have thereby caused the accident that killed the Cuban dissident leader, had already lost his licence in Madrid for speeding. In another article, Guy-Allard discusses the background of Carromero's mentor Pablo Casado Blanco (pictured).  Apparently he was educated in the US at schools that are favoured by the intelligence community...

Paya: español Carromero perdió su permiso de manejar

Paya’s Case: Spanish Pablo Casado, the agent behind the fatal operation

In the news

Cuban police map of the accident that killed Oswaldo Paya

Yours truly was interviewed on the Paya incident by Sara Rainsford of the BBC yesterday. Here is her report on the web today:

Cuba car crash fallout turns focus on dissidents' funds